Alaska or Bust: ‘Michcanska’ team departs on 4,000-mile fundraising expedition Published: Saturday, February 20, 2010
ALBA — Embarking on a three-week expedition that would make Jack London jealous, a team of four adventurers throttled their way from the Antrim County Snowmobile Club in Alba to Sault Ste. Marie early Tuesday morning to join a group bound for Tok, Alaska.
Mancelona’s Mel Kitchen and Larry Harp joined Alba resident Roy Wicht and his cousin David Little of Birmingham, Mich. to form a team for the first-ever “Michcanska,” a 4,000-mile snowmobile journey plotted through four states and five provinces.
The four-man team left this morning from the Upper Peninsula as part of the expedition’s second wave — the first of three groups departed Monday, with the final wave scheduled to hit the trails on Friday.
Don Gapinski of Gaylord is the fifth wheel of the group, who signed on to drive the support vehicle — and a four-piece trailer — as far as the Yukon town of Dawson.
The epic ride was the brainchild of Cadillac’s Bill Bradfield, a diabetic who hatched the idea of snowmobiling to Alaska in October of 2008. What began as a dream snowballed into a fundraiser for Diabetes Research Institute, and sportsmen from across the Midwest and beyond jumped on board.
“It’s for the love of snowmobiling and to raise money for the Diabetes Institute,” said Mel Kitchen, the 1973 champion of the International 500 snowmobile race. “This has never been done before. We’re figuring 200 miles a day on average.”
The only group of riders to leave from home on their sleds, Kitchen’s team accounts for nearly all of participants hailing from northern Michigan.
Kalkaska’s Frank Hemel, the youngest to attempt the Michcanska at 39 years of age, left from Sault Ste. Marie with the second wave of riders this morning as well, traveling with riders from downstate and Chicago.
“I snowmobile a lot and I do a lot of backpacking in the U.P and Canada,” said Hemel, who couldn’t resist the wilderness aspect of the voyage. “It’s the trip of a lifetime. Up there in British Columbia and Seskatchewan, roads like M-72 are called season roads.
In the mountains, it’s just nature running around — no trails, no sleds anywhere — just the mountain. And you make your own path.”
Riding through swaths of country few have to opportunity to see — for perhaps obvious reasons — the danger of being stranded is intensified. For Kitchen, who left the sink at home but little else, being prepared for anything is the key.
“We’ve got an extra sled and parts, and we’ve got all kinds of tools,” Kitchen said. “We have a furnace, a generator, air compressor, air tools, power tools — that’s me — I probably have more equipment than all the other 66 riders put together.”
Hemel, who’s single and slightly less stocked for the trip than Kitchen, joked that the best protection was life insurance.
“I told my nieces and nephew, ‘If you want to gamble, go get a life insurance policy and I might be back before the first payment.’” He said.
For information on Michcanska and to follow each team’s progress via satellite, visit http://michcanskag2.wordpress.com.
ALBA — Embarking on a three-week expedition that would make Jack London jealous, a team of four adventurers throttled their way from the Antrim County Snowmobile Club in Alba to Sault Ste. Marie early Tuesday morning to join a group bound for Tok, Alaska.
Mancelona’s Mel Kitchen and Larry Harp joined Alba resident Roy Wicht and his cousin David Little of Birmingham, Mich. to form a team for the first-ever “Michcanska,” a 4,000-mile snowmobile journey plotted through four states and five provinces.
The four-man team left this morning from the Upper Peninsula as part of the expedition’s second wave — the first of three groups departed Monday, with the final wave scheduled to hit the trails on Friday.
Don Gapinski of Gaylord is the fifth wheel of the group, who signed on to drive the support vehicle — and a four-piece trailer — as far as the Yukon town of Dawson.
The epic ride was the brainchild of Cadillac’s Bill Bradfield, a diabetic who hatched the idea of snowmobiling to Alaska in October of 2008. What began as a dream snowballed into a fundraiser for Diabetes Research Institute, and sportsmen from across the Midwest and beyond jumped on board.
“It’s for the love of snowmobiling and to raise money for the Diabetes Institute,” said Mel Kitchen, the 1973 champion of the International 500 snowmobile race. “This has never been done before. We’re figuring 200 miles a day on average.”
The only group of riders to leave from home on their sleds, Kitchen’s team accounts for nearly all of participants hailing from northern Michigan.
Kalkaska’s Frank Hemel, the youngest to attempt the Michcanska at 39 years of age, left from Sault Ste. Marie with the second wave of riders this morning as well, traveling with riders from downstate and Chicago.
“I snowmobile a lot and I do a lot of backpacking in the U.P and Canada,” said Hemel, who couldn’t resist the wilderness aspect of the voyage. “It’s the trip of a lifetime. Up there in British Columbia and Seskatchewan, roads like M-72 are called season roads.
In the mountains, it’s just nature running around — no trails, no sleds anywhere — just the mountain. And you make your own path.”
Riding through swaths of country few have to opportunity to see — for perhaps obvious reasons — the danger of being stranded is intensified. For Kitchen, who left the sink at home but little else, being prepared for anything is the key.
“We’ve got an extra sled and parts, and we’ve got all kinds of tools,” Kitchen said. “We have a furnace, a generator, air compressor, air tools, power tools — that’s me — I probably have more equipment than all the other 66 riders put together.”
Hemel, who’s single and slightly less stocked for the trip than Kitchen, joked that the best protection was life insurance.
“I told my nieces and nephew, ‘If you want to gamble, go get a life insurance policy and I might be back before the first payment.’” He said.
For information on Michcanska and to follow each team’s progress via satellite, visit http://michcanskag2.wordpress.com.
